Tuesday, January 22, 2013

(Opinion) Taro Aso: When honest opinions in politics are not refreshing

There has always been the
feeling among most people around the world that their political representatives
do not hold the most progressive opinions about their citizenry and Japan’s
finance minister Taro Aso went some way to confirm that long held
suspicion. Nobody avoids putting their
private views in the press than politicians, Aso broke the mould and stated
that a quarter of his country’s
population “should be allowed to “hurry up and die”[1]

The Irony about his public
statement stating in essence that the elderly should die and be quick about it
is that Aso, no spring chicken at the
age of 72, belongs to the very same
group he is encouraging to die quicker due citing that if he was to get sick he would
‘feel’ “increasingly bad knowing that (‘treatment’) was all being paid
for by the government”[2].

Aso means exactly what he said when
he stated his lack of comfort of being an expense on the government income
balance sheet citing that he doesn’t
want “end-of-life care” and made public
the fact that he had “written a note instructing his family to deny him
life-prolonging medical treatment”[3].

While it is clear from Aso’s
statement that he would like to have some control when he faces testing
sickness and impending death, this position is not likely to become legislation
any time soon as his party supported a move to “double consumption (‘sales’)
tax to 10% over the next three years” to deal with “rising welfare costs”[4].

This tax increase was not a
move to protect the elderly by politicians out of the goodness of their hearts
but a calculated realisation that the elderly is a crucial voting bloc with “almost
a quarter of the 128 million population is aged over 60.. (and)(t)he proportion
is forecast to rise to 40% over the next 50 years”[5].

While there is a real problem of
Japan’s older population straining it welfare system, It does shoe Aso’s
contempt of his fellow citizens. This hasn’t been Aso’s first day at the rodeo
as far as outrageous public statements are concerned as he has attacked Japan older
population in the past when he was Prime Minster citing them as “tax burdens
who should take better care of their health”[6].

In sum, politicians are not the
most favoured among us when it comes to popularity, especially when they
confirm long held suspicions that they have little to say that would flatter their
fellow citizens. However Aso, who comes from a privileged background, earns
such suspicion expressing his superiority of Citizens of which he is similar in age, most of which who have worked
hard all their lives.